Basking in the rays

Torsten and I are flying to Miami tonight to spend five full, glorious days and six nights there before we go to my parents' house in North Carolina for Christmas. I know I've been posting over the last month about how stressed I am and how badly I need a vacation, and I cannot even begin to tell you how incredibly glad I am that this day has finally arrived. For awhile there, I was starting to think it never would.

But of course, the day itself is not without stress. I'm at work until three, when I will head over to meet Torsten at the train station so that we can trek up to the Baltimore airport, and please, the next time somebody sees me about to book a flight through Baltimore because it's just so much cheaper than flying out of DC, please, do something, ANYTHING to stop me. Even if it means cutting off the hand that is about to click the mouse on "confirm."

And of course Torsten has an appointment that he absolutely cannot miss smack in the middle of the day, eight miles from the last stop on one of the Metro lines that runs into Virginia, which means totally in the opposite direction from Baltimore. So if he gets delayed at all, it will be very tough for us to make our flight.

But! Eventually, we shall get there! And then we will collapse into our king bed after admiring the oceanfront view from the balcony and we shall ignore the fact that the only way we could afford such a great view was by staying many miles north of South Beach in a hotel that is, by all accounts, in need of renovation. As long as our balcony doesn't actually fall into the ocean while we're there, I think we'll be set.

And once we are there, those five days... they will be spent on the beach, doing nothing. Except one of the days, which we'll be spending with my aunt and uncle, potentially seeing the Everglades, which hopefully will make for some nice photos. And then Torsten will have met nearly all of my extended family before the wedding, which makes me happy.

Oh, and not to jump back and forth in a hyperactive fashion, but back on this flight thing--can somebody explain to me how it works that we checked into our Southwest flight online 21 hours before the flight, and yet we were placed in boarding group B? Are there really people on the Southwest site exactly 24 hours ahead of time, frantically clicking refresh and waiting for the second when online check-in opens so that they guarantee themselves a spot in group A? Because if so, I will definitely need to point and stare at those people when I see them on the plane tonight.

The amazing thing is that we booked this flight way before the stress started, just because I had a five-day weekend off work and we thought we should take advantage of it. And let's just say the timing was fortuitous, because I have never needed a vacation so badly in my life. And now we get five days on the beach in the sun. The temperature is supposed to be in the high 70s every day that we're there, and it isn't supposed to rain. I can almost feel the sand already, which is a little awkward in my tweed skirt and tights, but oh, the thought of all that time lying on the beach, only with Torsten, doing nothing but letting all of the stress from the last month just float away... it's like heaven, right here in my cube.

Anyway, for those who are celebrating, I hope you have a great holiday, and for those who are traveling, I hope you have a safe trip. I will see you next week. With photos!